4 foreigners robbed in one day in dumaguete

A foreigner at a *disco* bar at 2am? What is to be expected when your out late at bars likely hunting for a chick for the night. He also had 10k in cash on him and was probably flashing it. Enough to get whatever drinks, pay for a bit more expensive girl, and a hotel for the night.

Foreigners with tons of high end valuables in their house stolen. That sounds more like an inside job where someone knew exactly what they had and probably likely knew where it was as well along with knowing when the owners would be out and for how long.

Sounds like all preventable thefts that could have been avoided by being a bit smarter and more careful.

 

That a foreigner is carrying around 10 - 20k of cash makes sense because the ATM's charge 200 pesos to withdraw money and many foreigners don't have any other options setup. They pull out their daily limit from the ATM and live on that until it runs out. If that foreigner lives in Valencia, then going home to drop off the money after the ATM trip is a pain in the @ss.

 

True of travelers everywhere. However, there seems to be two general money management types After the withdrawal is made:

1)Look at me, I gotta wad o' cash. I'm somebody! Let me peel these bills off of here one at a time, nice and slow so everyone can see how cool/rich I am...

2)Don't look at me, I aint got sh!t. Barely got enough to get home (because I put the majority in a place/pocket different from the place/pocket of my needs for the day)

Crooks are generally lazy and take advantage of crimes of opportunity. They will go after the drunk waving money around because they know he has it and is less than 100% aware of his surroundings (low situational awareness) way before hoping a miscellaneous guy can be overcome and has something worth the effort.

 

I don't see many foreigners waving their money around except at casinos where they do so through large buy-ins and careless bets. I see more of this from locals. And 10k isn't a lot of money. I know many foreigners who don't live large at a level of USD 2 - 3 K per month. For some that's huge, but it still doesn't go far if you aren't actively trying to look live frugal. At that budget, you're hitting the ATM quite often each month. I believe at one time the max was 10k in a 24 hour period.

 

And why are we talking about 10K? If you wave around 100 pesos and walk away from it, then it won't last long.

 

Ugh, sorry for the post bombing.

I get what you are saying here. There are a lot of foreigners who do something like this.

I don't trust my pockets and certainly not having money spread through them. I have had enough ripped pockets from aggressive Filipina laundry treatment that I have developed the habit of not using them. Back pockets are more robust but easier targets for being picked.

Having my money in one wad makes it easier to track. I quickly tell if it's lighter or slimmer than it should be. I usually put my money in a pouch I carry across my body which also carries my cell phone. This works great because friends who put cell phones in their pockets lose them all the time. I have never lost a cell phone and I'm horrible at forgetting things.

I probably should have better separation, but most foreigners just carry a wallet or their wad. Another issue is that cards aren't widely accepted. And a wad of blue stands out more than the wad of green 20's that I would have back home.

 

Sounds like you have a good handle on your personal situational awareness and have a system that works well for you. Your system excludes you from the easy target list thus staying out of the cross-hairs of the lazy crooks who prefer a soft target.

 

A gun bag works well for protecting valuables (see below photo for an example) -- if you don't mind getting used to carrying around a "purse"......hahaha.

The police accessories supply store on San Jose near Lee Super Plaza has a good selection.

It is very durable & is made out of thick canvass type material. The strap (not shown) is very strong. I believe it would be very difficult to slice the strap or slide open the bag with a razor blade -- without you knowing it.

A cell phone fits well in the front outside pocket. A firearm (if your wife/girlfriend has a permit to carry) fits well in either the 3rd or 4th compartment. There is lots of storage space for extra magazines, pepper spray, and a stun gun.

 

In either case, best to travel in pairs or groups. In the military we called it providing mutual support to each other.

You can enhance mutual support when going shopping when both of you are NOT fixating on the same item.

Usually when my gf is buying fruit in the market I stand either next to her, or behind her, AND I LOOK IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION from where she is looking.

Our pre-mission crew coordination briefing includes covering what self defense tools we each need for the mission, where will those tools be located on our bodies/bags, and specifically who is carrying the firearms -- ditto for the extra magazines. We discuss who has the stun guns & where are they carried. And, who has the pepper spray & where is it carried.